Latest Articles about Central Asia
EU STRATEGY IN CENTRAL ASIA: ONE YEAR LATER
A year after the German EU presidency introduced the Strategy for Central Asia from 2007 to 2013, the European Commission (EC) published a draft of its progress report. The report notes intensified collaboration with the Central Asian states and sets out future dimensions for cooperation.... MORE
KHOROG RESIDENTS PROTEST AGAINST CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
On June 18, residents of Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) staged protests in Khorog, the oblast's administrative center. Some 300 people demanded that the government withdraw troops that were dispatched to the oblast a few days ago to capture field commanders from the 1992 to... MORE
TRADE AND TRANSIT COOPERATION INCREASING BETWEEN UZBEKISTAN AND IRAN
In the midst of the evolving new “Great Game” between the U.S. and Russia for control of Central Asia and its energy and mineralogical riches, an interesting but largely overlooked collateral development is the deepening parallel bilateral relations between regional states. One of the most... MORE
KAZAKHSTAN’S ARMED FORCES LOOK FOR WESTERN “APPROVAL”
Kazakhstan’s military and security relationship with Russia, strong and rooted in common interests and approaches expressed through bilateral and multilateral defense cooperation, shows signs of deepening in new ways that reveal some of the most pressing priorities of Kazakhstan’s defense policies. In Eastern Kazakhstan from... MORE
CENTRAL ASIAN WATER AND RUSSIA
They say that you can’t kill a good idea--or apparently a bad one, either. Moscow mayor and Putin silovik Yuriy Luzhkov has revived one of the USSR’s last and most megalomaniacal projects, a scheme to divert a Siberian river southward to relieve Central Asia’s perennial... MORE
KYRGYZ GOVERNMENT, PARLIAMENT REFUSE TO PROLONG CONTRACT WITH CANADIAN GOLD COMPANY
The Kyrgyz government and parliament have been postponing ratification of a contract with the Canadian mining company Cameco Corporation that is due on June 1. Talk has been circulating for the past few years that the Kyrgyz government’s 2003 agreement between Kyrgyz Kumtor Gold Company... MORE
RUSSIA “BOOSTS” MILITARY PRESENCE IN CENTRAL ASIA
Russia’s plans to “reinforce” its airbase at Kant in the Kyrgyz Republic and further strengthen its 201st Motor Rifle Division (MRD) in Dushanbe, combined with other elements of boosting its defense cooperation with the Central Asian states, indicate evolving trends in the region’s security dynamics.... MORE
WASHINGTON AND MOSCOW VIE FOR TURKMENISTAN’S SUPPLIES
Since 1991 the Kremlin and Washington have sparred over the hydrocarbon riches of the Caspian, the world's greatest untapped regional deposits. While Azerbaijan is now firmly in the Western orbit, both Russia and America are vying for influence in Kazakhstan, but due to U.S. sanctions,... MORE
RUSSIAN ADMIRAL GOES TO KYRGYZSTAN TO STRENGTHEN NAVAL COOPERATION
On May 29 and 30 Admiral Vladimir Vysotskiy, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, visited the Kyrgyz Republic in an effort to bolster military-technical cooperation and display a positive image of Russia’s naval strength. During talks with Kyrgyz officials, Vysotskiy secured agreement on the continued use... MORE
U.S. CITIZEN ARRESTED IN KYRGYZSTAN, RECEIVES UNFAIR TREATMENT
On May 30 the Kyrgyz police arrested a 25-year-old U.S. citizen, Max Chounlamany, a civilian employee at the Gansi U.S. Air Force base at the Manas airport in Bishkek. Chounlamany was accused of accidentally setting fire to an apartment he rented in Bishkek. The investigation... MORE